[Den-O]

S.H. Figuarts Heart Roidmude Gallery

The real Dead Zone heralds the release of S.H. Figuarts Heart Roidmude! Leader of the Roidmudes and seemingly their most powerful member, Heart was a noble villain from start to finish. Let's see how this figure ( a rare kaijin SHF) stacks up to the actual character.

Packaging
As with Drive Type Technic, the only new thing to say about this packaging is that it feature a windowless box. As a Tamashii Web Exclusive this is quite normal, but a welcome change for this line since it allows more space for the excellent box art. Everything else is business as usual as it was with Type Speed, Mashin Chaser, Mach, Type Wild, & DriveType Dead Heat.

Main Figure
With Heart in hand it's very easy to see the influence of the series' kaijin desinger (and long time S.I.C. sculptor) Takeyuki Takeya. A master of details and of transformation, Mr. Takeya's wonderful design for Heart has made the transition to figure form all too well. At least at first glance. At it's core Heart is an entirely new figure compared to everything else released from Drive thus far. He's also the only Roidmude released at all so far. Kaijin SHF's are few and far between now, gone are the glory days of the Dopants, Greed, & even Zodiarts when there were many villainous releases to accompany the heroic riders. Heart's here to set a new bar so to speak. Granted it doesn't appear that there are any plans to release other Roidmude at this point, but if there were this figure would be an indicator of their quality.

That said, his is a low low, low, bar. Heart is a gorgeously sculpted figure. Seriously it's like the show suit was shrunken down to perfect miniature. In terms of sculpt it's unbeatable. The intricate designs and etching of the suits are perfectly represented here. From Hearts' feet to his incredible head everything looks great (minus some weirdly applied paint apps on mine's left shoulder). Perhaps the best points to mention are the actual chest and Hearts well, heart. It's just gorgeous. It looks like it could beat with some devilish blood flow at any point. And actually his entire backside is incredible, just filled with musculature and striations that give it so much more detail than I'd ever expected.

This Figuart however is functionally an awful toy. Plain and simple. Where Heart excels in sculpt, he fails miserably in design. The legs in particular are just bad. Thanks to the skirt armor, which again looks great, the legs can barely move whatsoever. I've managed to get him in a few decent poses but only briefly and most of the time only with support from a Tamashii Stage. Hearts legs can barely move outwardly and certainly don't have much range forward or back, add to this his rather clownish feet and even basic poses can be difficult. Worse still are the incredibly loose hips on mine.

Moving up the arms may as well be vestigial. They serve no purpose. Despite huge wrists the hands move freely, the elbows work even. But the bicep swivels are all but impossible to use as it only moves about a quarter turn, almost like something is blocking each arm internally from moving more. And the arms have the ability to move slightly up & forward or back, but are immediately stopped by the massive shoulder pads. Pads that for some bizarre reason can only rotate forward or back on a swivel. There is no hinged joint to allow them to move up with the arm. Effectively killing almost any good pose you want to have the arms in. Couple these issues with the torso that can barely swivel or lean forward at all, and you have a balancing nightmare. Even arching the back just slightly will topple this guy over. The head is also pretty terribly designed. Again it's a BEAUTIFUL sculpt but the massive frill/neck piece coming up out of the torso has minimal rotational movement and the head sitting atop it has only slightly more.

This guy just can not get into good poses.

Accessories
Sadly Heart falls on the leaner side when it comes to accessories as well. As a a kaijin with no real weapons or personal items to speak of, Heart is relegated to only the most basic of accessories. 3 Sets of hands. I can't say that I'm shocked. Again Heart isn't a rider or anything of the sort, he doesn't carry weapons or keep any special items on hand. So the figure coming with just the basics is understandable. But I think a release like this would have greatly benefited from at least an effect part of some sort. Perhaps some flame or smoke like parts, some kind of energy/lightning effects to go along with him powering up to the Dead Zone. He could have even included an alternate open mouth head for when he does enter the Dead Zone, but alas we don't even have that.

And I have to mention the bizarre 'holding things' hands he comes with. They're molded shut, but open through the center as though a small pole of some sort could fit through his grasp. But no such mention is made in the instructions as to what these are for, and no accessory with any Drive Figuart that I own has any discernible way of interacting with Heart while using that type of hand.

Final Thoughts
I'm really sad to say that I feel S.H. Figuarts Heart Roidmude is Bandai's first true bomb in the Kamen Rider Drive line. Honestly I haven't handled a figuart I was this disappointed in in a very long time. It's a beautiful figure, just stunning. I love looking at it. But it does not have anywhere near the proper functionality that a figuart produced in 2015, the same year that a near perfect Kaijin figure like Doras was released, should have. I love Heart, his character had an amazing path throughout the TV series and for that reason I wanted to own this figure. For that reaspn I'm happy to own this figure, I've gotten enough out of him to be satisfied with the discounted price I paid. But for other buyers I'd say be wary of this release and wait for a discount.